8 ms·

Explore Flask is now in the public domain

141 points by thejosh 12y ago

alrs 12y ago
I don't see anything in that repo that says that the work has been licensed as a work in the public domain. Works licensed under Creative Commons, GPL, MIT, BSD, etc. are not in the public domain. Public domain is something else, entirely. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_domain http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_domain EDIT: found it: "Contributions are all placed in the public domain like the rest of the text." It would be cool if the author jumped in and explained the choice to use the public domain.
- roryokane 12y ago
  The license is also stated on the index page https://github.com/rpicard/explore-flask/blob/master/source/index.rst#license https://github.com/rpicard/explore-flask/blob/master/source/... (live page: http://exploreflask.com/ http://exploreflask.com/). He talks a little about this reasoning on that page: > I finally released the book, after spending almost a year working on it. Almost immediately I was tired of managing distribution and limiting the book's audience by putting it behind a paywall. I didn't write a book to run a business, I wrote it to put some helpful content out there and help grow the Flask community. > […] > In the spirit of open source software, I'm placing all of the content in this book in the public domain.
- darylyu 12y ago
  This is from the email Robert Picard sent... Hi everyone! I've decided that I didn't write this book to run a business. I'm tired of managing distribution channels and looking at sales stats. I want this book to be open and available for everyone. I've released Explore Flask into the public domain and I've spent the last week converting it to Sphinx so I could make it available at http://exploreflask.com http://exploreflask.com. The project is going to be maintained in the GitHub repository at https://github.com/rpicard/explore-flask https://github.com/rpicard/explore-flask. I look forward to working with the book as a living document into the future. Thank you to everyone who purchased the 1.0 release of the book. The sales numbers weren't huge, but they allowed me to compensate my awesome editor, Will Kahn-Greene for all of his hard work. Another thanks to everyone who purchased the pre-release. That money kept me afloat before I landed the great job I'm currently enjoying! Feel free to get involved on GitHub. Pull requests are welcome! - Robert
  - hackerboos 12y ago
    >Feel free to get involved on GitHub. Pull requests are welcome! This is the future of technical authoring. Gone are the days when a book is published full of bugs and other mistakes. If there's a bug in a e-book then it's a pull-request away from being fixed. Now if only e-readers could display tech books better...
- chimeracoder 12y ago
  Please use CC0[0], not "public domain". Several countries (esp. in Europe) do not recognize the concept of the public domain (and/or limit an individual's right to place their content in the public domain "prematurely")[1]. In these countries, declaring your code to be in the public domain does nothing, whereas using a CC0 license is a more legally defensible way of achieving the same goal (allowing others to use your work freely without fear that you could later revoke that right). [0] https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_domain#Dedicating_works_to_the_public_domain https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_domain#Dedicating_works...
  - schwarze_pest 12y ago
    http://cr.yp.to/publicdomain.html http://cr.yp.to/publicdomain.html
pronoiac 12y ago
I'm surprised there's no epub version. (It reflows more nicely on my phone.) Is this something others have an interest in, an oversight, or intentional?
- scrollaway 12y ago
  The guy spent ages converting it to sphinx already just to give the thing out. Help him out and file a PR, I'm sure he'd appreciate it.
  - pronoiac 12y ago
    Heh - I was doing that! I tried building the HTML version under Ubuntu 12.04, failed, and I'm working on getting 14.04 up and running. Edit: I hadn't seen the email text about Sphinx, so it was news that he'd been working on converting it. Sorry!
  - pronoiac 12y ago
    Ok, I added some background on prerequisites for building HTML and ePub, and filed a pull request.
  - pronoiac 12y ago
    I posted an ePub - https://github.com/pronoiac/explore-flask/blob/add-epub/assets/ExploreFlask.epub https://github.com/pronoiac/explore-flask/blob/add-epub/asse... - though no pull request, because I'd already filed a related PR. Wait, should I file another?
- mjhea0 12y ago
  You can create one yourself easily with Pandoc, then PUSH the convertor to the repo for others. :)
- mjhea0 12y ago
  How about a nice PDF? Example - https://github.com/realpython/about/blob/master/deployment.pdf https://github.com/realpython/about/blob/master/deployment.p...
yen223 12y ago
I love the illustrator's name.
baq 12y ago
Is this Python 3-ready? Looks pretty good from a very short peek, but don't have the time to actually read it for a while.
- thmcmahon 12y ago
  From the preface: Since this book is meant to provide practical advice, I think it makes sense to write with the assumption of Python 2. Specifically, I’ll be writing the book with Python 2.7 in mind. Future updates may very well change this to evolve with the Flask community, but for now 2.7 is where we stand.
- perpetuated 12y ago
  Purely from personal experience (I know, I know), Flask's Python 3 support is solid. With a little bit of intuition, I'm sure any Py3-related problems from following the book could be worked around.
izolate 12y ago
I would love a physical copy of the book. Is one in the works?
- mjhea0 12y ago
  Make your own - http://www.lulu.com/ http://www.lulu.com/
- mjhea0 12y ago
  I can make a PDF fairly easily. Here's a sample - https://github.com/realpython/about/blob/master/deployment.pdf https://github.com/realpython/about/blob/master/deployment.p...
mjhea0 12y ago
Excellent resource. I supported the Kickstarter. Helped review and edit the alpha and beta versions. And I just submitted my first pull - https://github.com/rpicard/explore-flask/pull/43 https://github.com/rpicard/explore-flask/pull/43 Highly recommended!
Kortaggio 12y ago
I'm in the middle of making a Flask application and this is just what I needed, thank you for your work!

141 points by thejosh 12y ago

alrs 12y ago

I don't see anything in that repo that says that the work has been licensed as a work in the public domain. Works licensed under Creative Commons, GPL, MIT, BSD, etc. are not in the public domain. Public domain is something else, entirely. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_domain http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_domain EDIT: found it: "Contributions are all placed in the public domain like the rest of the text." It would be cool if the author jumped in and explained the choice to use the public domain.

roryokane 12y ago
The license is also stated on the index page https://github.com/rpicard/explore-flask/blob/master/source/index.rst#license https://github.com/rpicard/explore-flask/blob/master/source/... (live page: http://exploreflask.com/ http://exploreflask.com/). He talks a little about this reasoning on that page: > I finally released the book, after spending almost a year working on it. Almost immediately I was tired of managing distribution and limiting the book's audience by putting it behind a paywall. I didn't write a book to run a business, I wrote it to put some helpful content out there and help grow the Flask community. > […] > In the spirit of open source software, I'm placing all of the content in this book in the public domain.
darylyu 12y ago
This is from the email Robert Picard sent... Hi everyone! I've decided that I didn't write this book to run a business. I'm tired of managing distribution channels and looking at sales stats. I want this book to be open and available for everyone. I've released Explore Flask into the public domain and I've spent the last week converting it to Sphinx so I could make it available at http://exploreflask.com http://exploreflask.com. The project is going to be maintained in the GitHub repository at https://github.com/rpicard/explore-flask https://github.com/rpicard/explore-flask. I look forward to working with the book as a living document into the future. Thank you to everyone who purchased the 1.0 release of the book. The sales numbers weren't huge, but they allowed me to compensate my awesome editor, Will Kahn-Greene for all of his hard work. Another thanks to everyone who purchased the pre-release. That money kept me afloat before I landed the great job I'm currently enjoying! Feel free to get involved on GitHub. Pull requests are welcome! - Robert
- hackerboos 12y ago
  >Feel free to get involved on GitHub. Pull requests are welcome! This is the future of technical authoring. Gone are the days when a book is published full of bugs and other mistakes. If there's a bug in a e-book then it's a pull-request away from being fixed. Now if only e-readers could display tech books better...
chimeracoder 12y ago
Please use CC0[0], not "public domain". Several countries (esp. in Europe) do not recognize the concept of the public domain (and/or limit an individual's right to place their content in the public domain "prematurely")[1]. In these countries, declaring your code to be in the public domain does nothing, whereas using a CC0 license is a more legally defensible way of achieving the same goal (allowing others to use your work freely without fear that you could later revoke that right). [0] https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_domain#Dedicating_works_to_the_public_domain https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_domain#Dedicating_works...
- schwarze_pest 12y ago
  http://cr.yp.to/publicdomain.html http://cr.yp.to/publicdomain.html

pronoiac 12y ago

I'm surprised there's no epub version. (It reflows more nicely on my phone.) Is this something others have an interest in, an oversight, or intentional?

scrollaway 12y ago
The guy spent ages converting it to sphinx already just to give the thing out. Help him out and file a PR, I'm sure he'd appreciate it.
- pronoiac 12y ago
  Heh - I was doing that! I tried building the HTML version under Ubuntu 12.04, failed, and I'm working on getting 14.04 up and running. Edit: I hadn't seen the email text about Sphinx, so it was news that he'd been working on converting it. Sorry!
- pronoiac 12y ago
  Ok, I added some background on prerequisites for building HTML and ePub, and filed a pull request.
- pronoiac 12y ago
  I posted an ePub - https://github.com/pronoiac/explore-flask/blob/add-epub/assets/ExploreFlask.epub https://github.com/pronoiac/explore-flask/blob/add-epub/asse... - though no pull request, because I'd already filed a related PR. Wait, should I file another?
mjhea0 12y ago
You can create one yourself easily with Pandoc, then PUSH the convertor to the repo for others. :)
mjhea0 12y ago
How about a nice PDF? Example - https://github.com/realpython/about/blob/master/deployment.pdf https://github.com/realpython/about/blob/master/deployment.p...

yen223 12y ago

I love the illustrator's name.

baq 12y ago

Is this Python 3-ready? Looks pretty good from a very short peek, but don't have the time to actually read it for a while.

thmcmahon 12y ago
From the preface: Since this book is meant to provide practical advice, I think it makes sense to write with the assumption of Python 2. Specifically, I’ll be writing the book with Python 2.7 in mind. Future updates may very well change this to evolve with the Flask community, but for now 2.7 is where we stand.
perpetuated 12y ago
Purely from personal experience (I know, I know), Flask's Python 3 support is solid. With a little bit of intuition, I'm sure any Py3-related problems from following the book could be worked around.

izolate 12y ago

I would love a physical copy of the book. Is one in the works?

mjhea0 12y ago
Make your own - http://www.lulu.com/ http://www.lulu.com/
mjhea0 12y ago
I can make a PDF fairly easily. Here's a sample - https://github.com/realpython/about/blob/master/deployment.pdf https://github.com/realpython/about/blob/master/deployment.p...

mjhea0 12y ago

Excellent resource. I supported the Kickstarter. Helped review and edit the alpha and beta versions. And I just submitted my first pull - https://github.com/rpicard/explore-flask/pull/43 https://github.com/rpicard/explore-flask/pull/43 Highly recommended!

Kortaggio 12y ago

I'm in the middle of making a Flask application and this is just what I needed, thank you for your work!